


NSR But The Entire Thing Is There's Portals

by sporkkles_irl



Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Crossover, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Portal 2 Spoilers, Selectively Mute Zuke (No Straight Roads)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27798349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sporkkles_irl/pseuds/sporkkles_irl
Summary: (Working Title I promise I will come up with something better later-)What happens when you get trapped in a government facility a few hundred feet belowground, defeat a corrupt cyborg and get sent into stasis for 50 years, only to be woken up by a clumsy yet surely well-meaning robot and tossed back into the very wide underground sprawl of No Straight Roads, the only research facility where the steps of the scientific method are deemed completely and utterly worthless?Well, you have a sequel, is what happens.
Relationships: Mayday/Zuke (No Straight Roads), Yinu & Yinu's Mother (No Straight Roads), past Eve | Nadia/Zuke (No Straight Roads)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	NSR But The Entire Thing Is There's Portals

“Good morning! You have been in suspension for  **_50_ ** days. In compliance with state and federal regulations, all testing candidates in the NSR Science Extended Relaxation Centre must be revived periodically for a mandatory physical and mental wellness exercise.”

Zuke blinked up at the ceiling, still slightly disoriented. It was comfortable here, in the bed, light filtering through the blinds on the opposite end of the room. The last thing he wanted to do was get up and move. How bad could it possibly be for him to just lie there, just for...five more minutes.  
Still, he’d rather not have his bones atrophy and all his muscles melt away, so he pushes himself up on his forearms and stretches.

Fleeting calm flooded through him.

He worked up the strength to slide his legs off the bed, bare feet feeling weird against the...wood? Of the floor. It looked like wood, it smelt like wood, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was not wood. Oh well, it hardly mattered.

“You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, look up at the ceiling.”

He glanced up at it for all of two seconds.

“Good. You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, look down at the floor.”

He switched his tired stare to the ground, the not-wood taunting him.

“Good. This completes the gymnastics portion of your mandatory physical and mental wellness exercise.”

Well, fuck, he hadn’t even gotten all the way out of the bed yet. Goodbye bones, goodbye muscles, goodbye mental stability. Zuke groaned quietly and rubbed his temple, taking a few more seconds to himself to waste whoever was on the other end of that announcements time before finally shoving himself to his feet.

“There is a framed painting on the wall.”

Zuke glanced over to it, apathetic.

“Please go stand in front of it.”

He dragged himself over, scanning it and subconsciously nitpicking it. Turns out that arts degree haunts him to this day.

“You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, stare at the art.”

He blinked as the buzzer sounded, he was getting tired of hearing it, must they make it so...loud. Apparently.  
He didn’t want to stare at the sloppily put-together mess of colors in front of him any longer than he had to, almost grateful as the robotic and distorted voice spoke up once again.

“You should now feel mentally reinvigorated. If you suspect staring at art has not provided the required intellectual sustenance, reflect briefly on this classical music.”

Zuke almost punched a wall as the music started up, only to be cut extremely short by another goddamn buzzer going off. The music had been the one thing not annoying about this entire segment, very cool of it to be turned off almost immediately. Zuke really wanted to go back to bed.

“Good. Now, please return to your bed.”

Well, lucky him.

He reaches for the covers, content to fall back into that dreamless stasis he was kept in for all of time, when...a strange scratching noise made him hesitate.  “...?” He turned slowly, squinting blearily in the direction of the door.  _ Something _ was outside.

He dove over the bed, constant exhaustion overcome by slight panic, and gripped the sheets, staring in abject horror at the door as the scratching became banging, and the banging became a scream of frustration, and the scream became an orange girl breaking down the thing with a very loud crash, bruising her shoulder no doubt.

“!!????” Zuke tumbled back in surprise.

“ZUKE?” The girl sat up almost instantly, the crash landing doing seemingly nothing to her, and she scrambled over the fallen door and the bed, half-hanging off it as she smiled toothily down at him.  “ZUKE! OH THANK GOD! I was so worried you got moved or somethin’!”

Zuke blinked at her for a good minute, eagle-spread on the ground and brain struggling to keep up with this new development. Who was-OH-oh, orange girl-friendly fellow test subject-friend? He didn’t remember having any friends, or at least none he could name, but then again he didn’t remember anything from before this besides only the biggest achievements and events of his life, surely...simply making a friend wouldn’t stick in his coma-sodden head.

She must have known he didn’t recognize her, and she closed her eyes and laughed, grabbing the collar of his jumpsuit and pulling him up.  “Name’s Mayday, ‘memeber? We partnered up for a while in the training section a while back! ...you...remember, right?”  
She looked a little sad, but it all came flooding back to Zuke as if a gas leak had erupted in his head. Maybe all he needed was a little trigger.

She must have recognized the dissolving expression of fear on his face and noted the new one of relative excitement at seeing someone he knew again, because she laughed again and promptly dragged him onto the bed with her.

“You got woken up for that weird physical thing too, huh?” She asked, leaning in close.

He nodded, rubbing his hands around in front of his chest.

“Same here! Didn’t do any of it, obviously. I broke out and found you instead! A lot more productive in my opinion.”

He smiled.

“...” Mayday’s smile faded, and she glanced to the floor. “Zuke…”

He looked up, concerned.

“I’m...I’m scared. I know it’s not...I don’t know, standard? Legal? I just...I don’t wanna be alone.” She mumbled the last bit, voice very very small.

_Oh._

He smiles at her apologetically, gently placing a hand on her shoulder in understanding, no one wants to be alone in a place like this, no one wants to be in a place like this in general. It was only the worst possible timing, the worst possible situation, that got him here, and he had no doubt she had been in the same place.  
The jumpsuits here are orange for a reason, after all.

“Do you think we could...do you think we could stay together, ah?” She supposed, looking to him almost pleadingly.

He nodded in response, and pulled her into a big hug as the announcer spoke again.

“Please return to your bed.”

She squeaked and hugged him back, letting them fall into the soft of the bed as he pulled the blanket over them, hydraulics hissing as they sprung out of the headboard.  She peered at him one last time before she felt the sharp pain of the needle entering her neck, entering their necks, and suddenly her eyes couldn’t stay open.  
She was happy the last thing she saw for a long, long time was Zuke, smiling at her comfortingly, holding her gently, as they both fell back into that neverending dreamless limbo the medically-induced coma granted them.

**Author's Note:**

> Original AU concept was by @zara_bruh on here, so check them out for more quality content if you want! :D


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